The Return of Benjamin Barker
by TheElejahDiaries
Summary: Benjamin Barker returns and declares himself as Sweeney Todd and uses Mrs. Lovett to carry out his plan of revenge.
1. Chapter 1

Mrs. Lovett heard a sharp rap on the door of her meat pie shop. It was ten o'clock at night. Who in their right mind would come calling at ten at night?

"We're closed!" she called loudly, hoping whoever it was would leave. She had no such luck, as there was an even louder knock on the door. Mrs. Lovett shook her head and got up to see who had the nerve to come knocking at this time of night.

She pulled open the door to her shop to find a worn down, gaunt, haunted-looking man. He was of average height with thick, wavy, pitch black hair that had a streak of white running through it. His eyes were sunken and had dark circles around them - but the eyes themselves were a beautiful chocolatey brown. Mrs. Lovett would know those eyes anywhere...

She looked the man over quickly, taking everything about him in, all the while keeping her face stony and impassive.

"Can I 'elp you, sir?" she asked, sounding irritated.

"I wanted to inquire about the room above your shop. Is it available for rent?" asked the man, no emotion showing on his pale face.

"Oh," said Mrs. Lovett, "I wouldn't want to rent that place to anyone. Some say it's 'aunted." The man just stood there, so Mrs. Lovett launched into the story that she always told prospective renters.

"There was a barber and his wife, you see. 'E was an artist with his knife, but they transported 'im for life. Barker, 'is name was, Benjamin Barker."

The man cut in. "What was his crime?"

Mrs. Lovett though a minute, then answered. "Foolishness. 'E 'ad this wife, you see. She was a pretty little thing, silly little nit. 'Ad 'er chance for the moon on a string, poor girl. And there was this judge who wanted 'er like mad. Every day 'e'd send 'er a flower, but she just stayed cooped up in her room," said Mrs. Lovett solemnly, gesturing to the room above the shop. "She wasn't 'avin any of that - all she did was sob. Then, one day, the Beadle called on 'er and said the Judge blamed 'imself for her plight, and 'e wanted 'er to come to 'is house. Of course, when she went there, poor dear, they were 'avin' this masquerade ball, and there was no one she knew. She asked for Judge Turpin, but she couldn't find 'im. He was there, but not so contrite. The Judge, being a man of power, does whatever 'e wants and gets away with it. The things he did to 'er. . ."

"_NO!_" screamed the man suddenly, his face full of anguish. "Would no one have mercy on her?" he said shakily.

Mrs. Lovett smiled slightly. She had been correct in her assumptions about the man's identity.

"So it is you," she whispered, leaning closer to the man sitting across from her, "Benjamin Barker."

"Where is Lucy? Where is my wife?"

Mrs. Lovett answered quickly, "Poisoned 'erself. Arsenic, from the apothecary 'round the corner. I tried to stop 'er, but she wouldn't listen to me."

The look on Benjamin Barker's face - his sunken, dark, skeletal face - was indescribable. Mrs. Lovett's heart ached for the man, but at the same time she hoped Lucy wasn't the only reason he returned. Benjamin took a deep breath - Mrs. Lovett couldn't imagine his pain. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but shut it quickly.

"And 'e's got our daughter," said Mrs. Lovett quietly.

"'He'? Judge Turpin?"

Mrs. Lovett nodded sadly.

"Fifteen years, I've sweated in a living hell, dreaming one day I might come home to a wife and child!" shouted Benjamin.

Mrs. Lovett, trying to find a way to pacify him, said, "It certainly is good to see you, Ben. Though I can't say the years 'ave been too particularly kind -"

"No," said Benjamin in a tone of deadly calm. "That man is dead. It's Todd now, Sweeney Todd. And he will have his revenge."

Mrs. Lovett stood up and smiled faintly at the man who had now declared himself as Todd.

"Well interesting choice of name, no doubt, but I don't suppose anyone'll recognize you, what with this white bit," she muttered, gesturing up at his hair. "Come on," she said, "I'll show you to your room."

They went outside into the darkness, finding the staircase more by memory than sight. When they reached the top, Mrs. Lovett took out a key she hadn't used for fifteen years, but remembered the feel of it in her hand. She pulled open the door, which creaked loudly from lack of use. She entered a room which had fallen into disrepair, the wallpaper peeling, the floorboards squeaking, and the windows positively plastered with dust. The large bay window on the slanted wall looked down onto the street below. Mrs. Lovett moved to it, taking out a handkerchief and wiping away fifteen years worth of dust. She turned back around to see where Todd was, but realized he was still standing in the doorway as if he were afraid of the ghosts he would encounter by entering the room.

"Come in, love. Ain't nothin' to be afraid of."

Todd walked into the room cautiously, looking in every corner, inspecting every bit of his old life that had been left behind. The bed he and Lucy had once shared was still on the far end of the room, Johanna's bassinet still sitting next to it. Mrs. Lovett saw the anguish Todd felt chill her very being. A good man like that shouldn't have to go through what he did. Todd walked toward the bassinet and uncovered it to find Johanna's favorite doll. Mrs. Lovett remember entertaining Johanna with it, and she wouldn't go anywhere without it. Mrs. Lovett bent down and cleared her throat loudly. Todd spun around and knelt down in front of her and helped her with the floorboard she was trying to pry up. She pulled out a box that Todd knew all too well.


	2. Chapter 2

Mrs. Lovett handed the box to Todd, who took it quickly. He opened the box and stared at the treasures inside.

"My friends," he breathed. "My faithful friends."

Mrs. Lovett seized the chance to prove herself to Todd the moment she saw it.

"Could've sold 'em, but I didn't. Kept 'opin' someday you'd come back."

Todd looked up, his ghostly eyes boring into Mrs. Lovett's. Todd squeezed his eyes shut, apparently deciding what to say.

"You know," he said with the air of someone who was saying something they shouldn't, "I didn't come back only for Lucy."

Mrs. Lovett turned even whiter that she already was, her eyes wide and her mouth gaping. "What?" she asked in a shaky voice. "You said you'd 'get your revenge' and all that. Obviously you care enough to want to 'unt down Judge Turpin!" Mrs. Lovett wasn't angry, but after nearly twenty years spent loving Benjamin Barker, she found it too good to be true.

"Of course, I wish to avenge Lucy," he began with an expression on his face that might have been the ghost of a smile, "but she's dead. I can't dwell on this. I have to move on – after Turpin's dead, of course," he added as an afterthought. "and there's only one woman I know that would take me as broken as I am."

"Ooh, Mr. Todd!" squealed Mrs. Lovett, nearly knocking Todd over as she assaulted him with a hug. "I'm so 'appy! I could eat you up, I really could!"

Todd hugged her back and then, sweetly as he could manage, asked her for a moment alone. She obliged and he was by himself, but not entirely alone.

"My friends," he said, taking from the box Mrs. Lovett had given him two razors made of chased silver. "I knew she'd fall for it, spending all those years obsessing over me, trying to take my attention away from Lucy. Well, I _will _avenge her – and there's no doubt now that Mrs. Lovett will do whatever I ask of her. But you, my friends, you will be my greatest asset in this mission."

Todd stood up and outstretched the arm holding the razors.

"At last," he said, reveling in the familiarity of the razor in his hand, "my arm is complete again!"

In the week that followed, Todd became increasingly irritable, spending the time between customers by pacing in front of the bay window, hoping and praying he'd see the judge coming toward his shop in need of a 'shave'. Mrs. Lovett visited him a few times per day, bringing with her some of what were probably the worst pies in all of London. After taking a bite of a particularly nasty pie, an idea came to Mrs. Lovett.

"Seems a downright shame," she said absently.

"Shame?" muttered Todd, equally as absent, as he was polishing his razors.

"Seems an awful waste. . . Such a nice plump frame the Judge 'as." Todd went on polishing his razors, paying little attention.

"Nor it can't be traced. Business needs a lift, there are debts to be erased. . . I mean," she continued, staring at all the passers-by on the road down below, "with the price of meat what it is, when you get it, if you get it. . ."

"Ah!" said Todd, catching on.

"Good, you got it," laughed Mrs. Lovett.

"Mrs. Lovett," cried Todd, spinning her around his shop, "what a charming notion, eminently practical, yet inappropriate as always! Mrs. Lovett, how I've lived without you all these years I'll never know!"

They sat down, winded, but filled with malicious delight.

"Never'd have thought you'd have it in you!" laughed Todd, and for the first time since he'd returned, Mrs. Lovett saw him smile.

From that point on, nearly every customer had their throat slit by Todd and was thrown into a pie after meticulous grinding to avoid any noticeable appendages. As time went on, Todd found himself thinking about Lucy and Johanna less and less and Mrs. Lovett more and more. Todd felt something he hadn't felt in nearly sixteen years. It was happiness, and perhaps a glimmer of something he didn't quite recognize – love. Whenever Mrs. Lovett was around, he felt himself smiling, if for no other reason than her presence. He had taken to helping her around the meat pie shop just to be nearer to her. Mrs. Lovett noticed this change and was thoroughly pleased by it. Todd hadn't completely given up avenging Lucy, but he no longer dwelled on it.

On one particularly _interesting _evening, Todd accompanied Mrs. Lovett to her bedroom, under the pretense of tightening a know on her armoire. It went from home improvement to a confession, with Mrs. Lovett and Todd lying on her bed next to each other, sharing things they'd hardly – if ever – shared before. Todd told her of his life since he'd been sent away from London. He had been banished to the Americas, but had made his escape when he met a young sailor named Anthony in Peru. Anthony, who had been heading to London himself, agreed to bring Todd with him, free of charge.

_"There's no place like London," said Anthony as they pulled into port._

_ "No place like London," Todd repeated, his eyes narrowed at the corrupt city where the vermin of the world lived._

_ When they got off the boat, Anthony offered his hand to Todd, who ignored it. Anthony withdrew his hand._

_ "Will I see you again, Mr. Todd?" Anthony asked._

_ "You might find me if you like. 'Round Fleet Street, I wouldn't wonder."_

"And then you came here," finished Mrs. Lovett.

"Then I came here," Todd confirmed, staring into her crystal-blue eyes.

Before he knew it, they were lost in each other, letting go like never before.

"I love you," breathed Todd into Mrs. Lovett's neck.

Mrs. Lovett sighed and drew Todd in closer.


End file.
